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Incidental Results and Transient Data
The radiology department of a medical school has designed and programmed a data visualization program that reads a series of physiological test results and converts this data into a multi-colored scatter plot, which can expose anomalies that would not otherwise be apparent. They have copyrighted the software and applied for a patent on the process. A technician who works at the school has captured several hundred images, produced from patient data during the software testing process, and used them to make wall-sized collages. He is selling these at a local art gallery and on eBay. When confronted, he points out that neither the data nor the identity of the patients can be recovered from the images, nor can the images themselves even be recreated by the data visualization program, as the various settings and parameters would be impossible to reproduce. Is the student ethically correct in claiming sole ownership of these images? C4L says: The data upon which the images are based belongs to the medical school and should not be used for any purpose other than that for which it was collected. Under federal human subjects protections, previously existing data, collected for one purpose and presumably with consent given for that purpose, cannot be used unless the original consent allowed other uses. Even though confidentiality and anonymity will be maintained, these data should not be used to construct the images. K5R says: In this situation, the technician is using proprietary material from their job for their own personal gain. I don't think it matters that the source of the data cannot be established or that this is artistic rather than scientific. This is still stealing from the company unless prior approval is received.
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